HIS33230

The Health Raj: Medicine and Society in British India, c. 1757-1914

This module explores the relationship between medicine and colonialism in the modern world, with a focus on the British Empire in India, c. 1757-1914. By examining European colonial encounters with a foreign environment, people and diseases, it will develop an understanding of medicine as a ‘tool of empire’. The module introduces students to historical works on the processes underlying how different cultures perceive body, health and disease, and enables them to think critically about health and medical intervention as a political aspect of colonial rule, covering wide-ranging topics including disease, environment, public health, sanitation, medical knowledge, epidemics, mortality, race, gender, and sexuality. Gaining this knowledge of the practice and implications of western medicine in the context of colonial India will deepen the students’ understanding of the role of colonialism in the making of global health, the transnational characteristics of modern medicine, and the origins of health inequalities. Students will be recommended relevant secondary sources and will work with a wide range of primary sources including government records, private writings, press reports, images and maps.